BeTempered
BeTempered
BeTempered Episode 33 - Facing the Lion: Mark Metzger's Story of Survival, Faith, and Strength
Ever wonder how a boy from a small dirt farm in Springfield, Ohio, could build a thriving construction empire? Join us as we share Mark Metzger's extraordinary journey from helping with early morning chores on a family dairy farm to founding a successful construction business. Mark's story is one of hard work and determination, shaped by the lessons learned from a large family. Through the ups and downs, including the trials of the 1987 recession, Mark's commitment to his employees, whom he considers family, shines through. Discover how his education at the University of Dayton and a relentless work ethic propelled him to overcome challenges in both personal and professional spheres.
Mark Metzger shares an extraordinary story of survival after a near-fatal encounter with a lion during a hunting trip in Ethiopia. His tale reflects resilience, faith, and the enduring power of community, as he illustrates the challenges of coping with a life-threatening experience and the impact it had on his life.
As Mark recounts his experiences, we’ll explore the balancing act of family life, long work hours, and the dream of transforming an old farmhouse into a cozy home. With his children grown and leading their own lives, Mark found a new passion—hunting—which opened a new chapter of adventure and bonding for his family. From local small-game hunts to thrilling ventures in Texas and Argentina, these experiences illustrate how shared interests can strengthen family ties. Tune in to hear how Mark Metzger’s life journey embodies resilience and the enduring power of family values.
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Catron's Glass. Thanks, Allie. Things like doors and windows go into making a house, but when it's your home, you expect more like the great service and selection you'll get from Catron's Glass. Final replacement windows from Catron's come with a lifetime warranty, including accidental glass breakage replacement. Also ask for custom shower doors and many other products and services. Call 962-1636. Locally owned, with local employees for nearly 30 years, Kitchen class the clear choice.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Be Tempered podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 3:Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.
Speaker 2:We're your hosts, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives. This is Be.
Speaker 3:Tempered.
Speaker 2:What's up everybody? Welcome to the Be Tempered podcast, episode number 33. 33. Yeah, beautiful day outside, beautiful day, beautiful day inside. Yes, outside's a little cold, yeah, a little cold outside today, but we're in a new location and we are excited today to hear the story of Mr Mark Metzger. So, mark, welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, thank you, and thank you for having us in your beautiful home. You're welcome, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:It is amazing. This is a um. I'm excited for you to share your story about, uh, everything that that we see here, and your story in business and your story in faith and your family and all that you've been through. You've you've done some amazing things in life, although I know you think that that you haven't but.
Speaker 2:I assure you once people hear this, they're they're going to recognize you do so. Um, don't know you and I really don't know your story. Growing up kind of talk about growing up as a child and then getting into the school years.
Speaker 4:Okay, I was raised in Springfield, ohio, outside of Springfield, on a small dirt farm. My dad, I think, had 35 acres and we raised everything we could raise. He worked at Wright Pat and so we started Dairy Herd. When I was 12 or 13, I was shipped off to a farmer up north because he had got his hands caught in a combine and his son got hurt, pulling him out, so they didn't have any help. So I went up there and I worked about six months when I was 12 years old, away from home. Wow, and that kind of set, my work style, got me going.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Because once I knew that it was possible, I didn't have a choice. But when I figured out it was done, I knew it was possible, and so that's kind of the way my work life started. I've been on a farm all but a couple years when college. I've been on a farm somehow or another. So I really like the farm life. It's set me up to be successful, I think you know. You know how it is. You got to work every day, whether you want to or not, and it comes and goes. So anyway, I have seven brothers and sisters. I'm the fifth in line. I've have four other brothers and three sisters, three other brothers, forces, I don't know. I got eight of them anyway.
Speaker 2:There's eight total. There's eight total.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and being a middle one, we milked 60 head of cows until I was 15 or 16. And then I was starting to get in high school and my other brothers older brothers were all leaving, so dad switched over from a dairy herd to a Hereford herd and so I knew how to work, ended up going to Northwestern High School. From there I went to the University of Dayton, graduated in 1971 with an engineering degree in civil engineering I went to work, for while I was in school I worked for a local surveying company, spent five years working for them or six years working for them, got my license and then the opportunity to come along to start my own business, and started that business in 1975.
Speaker 2:Okay Construction, business Construction business yeah. So I want to back up a little bit because I'm always, you know, being a farm kid and growing up on the farm. You know we had beef cattle growing up, we had pigs, but never dairy, and so whenever I run into someone who was raised on a dairy farm, it's always I don't know that people understand, who haven't been raised on a farm, what kind of work it takes to milk cows twice a day every day, no matter what. So having a big family that obviously helps right.
Speaker 4:Because I'm sure you were all involved. Well, everybody had to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but talk about you know, were there vacations? Growing up, like a lot of the kids have these days? No, I mean, you were working all the time. Yeah, back up, like a lot of the kids have these days no, I mean, you were working all the time yeah, back up just a little bit more.
Speaker 4:Like I say, my dad was a full-time employee of rec patterson and so my mom was the dairy um the dairy header that she ran the place and, like I said, I've had three older brothers and and they grew up in the business I the first thing I remember on the farm is getting the cows in. That's the first thing I remember going out in the field and bringing the cows up and standing in the barn so they wouldn't leave until they got milked. That's the first thing I remember is being a toddler sometime around the way, and so it was. I think we look forward to going to the Cincinnati Red Lanes game once a year, and so we picked Blackberries to get that money to go. And when we got enough money to get Blackberries, somehow we got somebody the neighbor, somebody to take care of the herd that night and we went to the Cincinnati Reds game.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and that was my vacation for until I went to college. Yeah, that's right, I don't ever remember having a childhood vacation. So not that I was deprived of anything, but I never had a vacation.
Speaker 2:Well, you didn't know any different. And two, that's where you got your work ethic, because, like you said, being on a farm, there's always work to be done, but when you bring livestock into the situation, then it's a whole nother realm. You get a day like today. What is it? 10 degrees outside, still got milk cows, milk cows.
Speaker 4:Keep water from freezing. Do everything else you gotta do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's an awesome childhood growing up, even though I'm sure some people might look at that and think why the heck would anybody wanna do that?
Speaker 4:Oh, I would do it again. Yeah, I would not change it for anything.
Speaker 2:Were you milking by hand or did you know?
Speaker 4:we, we had the surge milkers, the first kind of their air milkers, but you still had to wash every one of them down, you had to clean them up and, you know, get them fed while they're eating, while they're milking, and just there was just work everywhere. Carry the milk. We, we did carry the milk for a lot of years to to the, to the cooler, but then we then finally got in lines where the milk would go from the milker to the cooler.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. So then, so you go through, you go to University of Dayton I'm a Flyer alum, so engineering degree and what makes you do? You? Come right out of school and decide you're going to start your own business.
Speaker 4:No, I like to say I worked for a surveying company two years while I was in school. I needed the money to pay for school, so I worked as a surveyor for two years and then they hired me on and I worked for them for three or four years and a lot of our business was working for contractors and I'd always been a con. I mean, I always liked doing things. We built things at barn, we built a home and everything else, so I was always handy with my hands and building things. But um, so I just got around it. And then somebody from one of the companies we worked for, tom Williams, had offered that he wanted to go out on his own and he needed an engineer. And I fit the bill. So we got together and made it work. So it started out as kind of like a partnership.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but talk about the struggles early on. I mean anybody that starts a business or, like me, buying a business.
Speaker 4:You don't know how to run a business no talk about the challenges of getting started well, first off, I could say none of us know how to run the business. The paperwork is mind-boggling. When you start, yeah, you know it's easy to get once. Once you've spent two or three years doing it, gets easy. But getting that point it's really tough.
Speaker 4:We didn't have any money. I mean mean I was fresh out, like I say, out of college and we had to all kick in some money and I had to go borrow money and then we didn't get salaries for six months because we didn't have any work or didn't get paid for any work. We were working but we weren't getting paid for any work, and so we were living on Diane's secretary salary for about a year a year and a half, you know and struggling with payments and everything else, like everybody else does, and nowhere to get the money. Cause it's. You know you've got, you're spending all your time doing what you can do and it's just. It was a real struggle, challenge, but I think every minute of it was worth it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The joy's in the journey right.
Speaker 4:The joy's in the journey. Well, sometimes it's in the getting there Right.
Speaker 2:And I assume at this time you're probably raising a family.
Speaker 4:Raising a family, yeah, so kind of talk about that, the whole combination of the business and the family and all that stuff. So Diane and I got married in 75. We had our first child in 75. We started business in 75.
Speaker 3:That's a great year. That's a great year. 75 has been a great year.
Speaker 4:So, like you say, the challenge was getting married. I had a little house up in Enon from when I got it from school and we stayed there for three or four years, but anyway it was a challenge. Just to get payments done I was working 12 and 14 hours a day and then driving home and then by the time I got home I really didn't feel like talking and Diane had been in the house all day and that's all she felt like doing was talking.
Speaker 4:So it was a challenge that way to get you know, get us you know, you know how it is. You've been there, you know you spend too much time in the field and all of a sudden you somebody's got to talk to you.
Speaker 4:I mean that was that and we moved in here. In 70 or 77 we moved in here and that was another challenge because this was an old, broke down farmhouse. It wasn't. It wasn't like it is today. Nobody will believe that, but it was an old, broke down farmhouse. Matter of fact, my mom and, uh, diane's mom, sat in the back little back room here and they were kind of crying that we took this challenge on that. You know, you guys, you guys don't know what you're doing. And I promised Diane, I said give me 10 years. I mean it's not going to be perfect, but give me 10 years and I'll have you a nice place to live. And she bought into that program somehow.
Speaker 2:And you, see what we did.
Speaker 4:Diane's off mic listening. I didn't even know she was over here.
Speaker 2:The 10-year plan okay, yeah the 10-year plan.
Speaker 4:We'd fix up a room and you know, get a little money together and fix up another room, buy a piece of carpet, lay the carpet and get things like that. So it was a good living. It was challenging.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It was tough. You had to depend on each other. I mean, diane depend, we depend on each other so much now and it's all due to that challenge, you know. Yeah, I mean she knows what I'm thinking and I know what she's going to do, so it's it's just kind of it's been a life like that, but, um, we, I like a challenge. I take a challenge on every time. I I take it on head on yeah you know, I don't let him me, I just take them on and get in.
Speaker 2:So which is the best way to do it?
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 2:I think it goes back to being raised on a dairy farm. It's a challenge. You got to do it.
Speaker 4:I mean you can't make an excuse and say I don't feel like doing it today.
Speaker 2:Hey, let's, let's do it and let's let's get through it and be better because of it. So kind of talk about that.
Speaker 4:Okay, Well, it was. It was. It's a design build construction business. So we were designing buildings and then having to go build them. So you make a promise to an owner and you got to keep that promise. You know I, I made promises that I had to really work hard at keeping. You know, promising people they're going to get in in six months and then you know you get a money, a rainy month and don't get anything done. And then next you got to put it together. So a lot of late days, a lot of late nights. Uh, diane said I work. You know I, just that's, all I did was work.
Speaker 3:So maybe that was a challenge I should not have done, but yeah but when you're, yeah, when you're, when you're you know, trying to be successful and to grow, that you gotta do, you gotta do yeah, yeah, so you're bringing on employees and talk about those kind of challenges.
Speaker 4:Well, the good start was I had three partners to start with and they took a lot of the heavy load off of me. I was the engineer trying to get the work done, so they were doing the paperwork and hiring people and things like that. But still, even then it was hard to find help and we kept growing individually and then we'd throw them out and grab another guy and wait to see how he was going to work out and keep him because he's a good one and you know, uh, so that was that was the other challenge. Uh, getting work was a challenge. Get work to make money on, you know, yeah, you know we always get work, but can you make money on it and things like that. So, but the I guess, through three, four or five years, we're finally what I would call a successful contractor. We're doing work. We don't. We don't have to have. You know we don't have to go to the bank and ask for money to keep business going. You know that's always that's the new guys is challenged. They got to go to the bank and ask for money, but then they got to pay it back. You know you don't have to make money. You got to pay back money that you've borrowed. So that's, that's always been a challenge.
Speaker 4:But then about, oh, six or seven or eight years into the business, we were really good shape and then the recession of, I think, 87 came along and we'd stored up a little bit of money to keep business open. But the 87 recession, there was no work for anybody. I mean, you couldn't go out and pay people to give you jobs, there was just none, and it just all went away. We finished up jobs, money dried up and we took the challenge of taking on a couple of really tough jobs at a cheap price to keep the crews all busy, I mean. But this time I had adopted all my crews, all my people, all the good ones anyway, they're all my brothers and we adopted them all, and so I think it's my job to take care of them and keep them going, absolutely.
Speaker 4:But we took on a firehouse job in Kettering and we knew it was cheap, but I had, like I said, we wanted to work, but it was a lot cheaper than what we had ever thought. And then two or three of the contractors of that job also went out of business while they were trying to do the same thing, and so we got into a real big money pit. Probably lost somewhere near half a million bucks in that pit and we were out of money. And there was a time when I think I laid down and I says, god, get me out of this somehow because I don't know the way, god get me out of this somehow because I don't know the way.
Speaker 4:And a little time later one of the banks says, yeah, we can give you a little bit of money to stay alive. And that comes. A little bit of money came, a little bit more money came another job, came back to our feet, put everything back together, paid everybody off, got the work done, built them a real nice firehouse, and it was like starting over from a pit instead of starting over from beginning yeah you know, because of the money we lost.
Speaker 4:But most of my good people stayed with us. Some of them took a, took a year off even, yeah, and then say, when you get, when you get back on your feet, call me, we'll be back. And so most of them came back and we went back at it and we're, from there on, we we knew to put a year's worth of money away for just that kind of a time. Sure, so you didn't have to go out and beat yourself up and take it away. That was one of the lessons I learned to put money back and keep it back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one amazing thing in business to be where you think, hey, we finally made it, Made it yeah.
Speaker 2:And then all of a sudden, the bottom drops out. You know and you talk about, you know your relationships with your employees. I mean, I feel the same way and I try to tell any anytime I hire a guy, uh, or, or a lady that works for us. You know, I don't, I don't want it to be somewhere. I'm not hiring you to do this job. You know this, this project that we have, I want you to be here forever. And so you know that's not just giving them a paycheck. You know that's that's getting to know them, getting to know their story and their families and their needs and caring about them, because we all have stories, we all have issues, um, so it speaks volumes of you that you're. You know the people you had working for. You said, hey, I'll take a year off and I'll come back. You know that's an amazing thing and it has to feel good for you to know that, hey, I got these guys that are that are going to come back and and help me when we need help.
Speaker 4:Like I said, I treated them like my brothers, but they treated me like I was their brother too.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's kind of it kind of goes both ways you ask for respect and you get respect, or you show respect and you get respect, yeah. So you get through that challenging time and you're better because of it and things are growing, kids are growing, family's growing, life's crazy busy, crazy busy, yeah. Where does it go from there?
Speaker 4:Well, it keeps going. Like I say, I kept my business going for 42 years. 42 years I was running. As the process of the business went, my partners got old and went out or retired and whatever. I took on a new young man as a worker and then as a partner and he was my partner for 30 years and it was always the plan that you know he was going to take the business over and finish, you know, finish what I started and I was going to take the business over and finish what I started and I was trying to retire. So I was taking three days off a week, two days off a week, taking some time off.
Speaker 4:He was trying to get into running the business and getting it done right. He went on a cruise and he passed away that day. Okay, so I'm going from really good help, things moving really smooth and perfect to okay. I've got to go back to work and besides, losing a very dear friend. But then I had a challenge of restarting, do my thing over again and that took about three years or four years and I finally found a buyer for the business and it's going well now. It's a very successful business, construction manager of Ohio and we probably built, I don't know, 60 or 80 commercial plants in Dayton and around Dayton area, plus a lot of warehouses, office buildings and everything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so all those ups and downs of business, I know you are a faithful man and what got you through those challenging times. I mean, you talk about laying in bed at night and saying you know, dear God, help me. You know what continued to get you through every day, those challenges that you faced.
Speaker 4:Actually my kids and my family, diane, I mean, I always worried about them. You know what. Then it was my job to take care of them. So diane probably is you know, she's a rock solid and she's got me through everything I ever got through yeah but then you know that, that being said, I I do, I do have a real strong faith in god.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know it's his plan, it's not my plan. You know, I believe that, I believe he's. He's got a plan for me and I'm gonna just follow it. Do it again. Sometimes I step off the wrong road, sometimes I got to get back on it, but you know he's got that plan and I've got that trust in him that he will take care of me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know and you're an amazing man somewhere along the lines, obviously, with if anybody's watching the YouTube video, you can see some unique animals around us and we're in your home. And this is nothing here, compared to what's in the other room. You got into hunting. Talk about what got you into hunting and then where all that led. Can I back up a minute? You back up?
Speaker 4:I had three daughters and they were raised here, very successful young ladies. It was my life for a long time, I mean from the time they were born until they went through college. All the time I was working, I was working for them, I was working to get them through college, I was paying the bills, getting all that done. And the last one kind of went away and was about halfway through her schooling and all of a sudden I got two of them out and all of a sudden there's money left over. You know, I mean I'd been paying for three in college at the same time at one point and so all of a sudden there's money left over and so I mean I got money and I got time. The kids are now gone and I got money and time.
Speaker 4:So I guess I got into hunting that way, kind of like an afterthought of sport, whatever. I mean I hunted. Every farm I've ever been on I've hunted, but it's always been small game and we never had deer here. Until I know, 20 years ago we never had a deer on the farm. So it was always small game rabbits, pheasants, quail, squirrel, yeah, yeah. But then I got into hunting. I had some friends that were kind of hunters that I met up with and you know, over the years you start talking about what you like to do. I like to hunt, but these guys were bigger hunters than I were. So I think my first hunt was in 97. I went to texas on a game ranch hunt and then we went to after that hunt we went to argentina at a real international hunt the first international hunt now going from texas to argentina.
Speaker 2:That's a pretty big, that's a pretty big jump.
Speaker 4:That's a pretty big jump.
Speaker 2:So what makes you make that jump?
Speaker 4:I don't know. You know it's one of those that you know. Actually, I went to a convention with my buddies. We're all going in there. Like I say, two of them are real hunters and the other one is just tag along like I was. And you know, we've been to Texas hunting, we've been to hunting a couple of places and maybe in dove hunting a couple of places, but we're out there looking for the hunts that are on the market, and the Argentina hunt just grabbed me. I don't know it, just it just seemed like I've always wanted to go to Argentina. I always read about Argentina, I always did all that, not the hunting part of it, but just the country itself. And so I just we took a chance, country itself, and so I just we took a chance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and so Diane and I went and we spent. I don't know, 15 or 18 days there, yeah, and so it's one thing for for you as a man to go hunt, but then Diane wants to go with you yes so you make it a family affair to go on these hunts? Yes, yeah, most, most all of them. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Diane. Diane has been on 90 of the hunts with me. She's hunted a couple of times, but she's mostly just a partner to go with. She enjoys the outdoors, she enjoys the wildlife. She just really doesn't like shooting much, you know.
Speaker 2:Who's the better shot?
Speaker 4:She is.
Speaker 3:All women are better shots.
Speaker 4:I mean, if you give me a guy and a girl and I'm supposed to train them to shoot, the girl's always going to be a better shot than the guy because they don't have that macho. They've got to do something different. They just follow the rules and just go at it. But that answer. But she only misses a few of the hunts. And those are the ones that are real cold she doesn't like the cold and the ones that are real hot, like the bongo hunting. It's real over desert.
Speaker 3:What was it in Argentina that you were hunting?
Speaker 4:We had a group of things we were hunting. They're famous for their birds, their doves, so we hunted doves for a few days and then we went on to a big game hunt. We hunted buffalo, their little deer there's not one in here, but the little rocket deers, they're just little bitty things and then some other big game, this black buck behind me, so just things like that. You know it was a full bag hunt. So we had, I think, probably brought I don't know 10 animals back home with us. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So you go on, you go to your hunt on Argentina and talk about all the different places that you've been since that Argentina trip.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of them, so I'm going to miss them. Sure, let's start with my favorite place to go. My favorite place to go hunting is in South Africa. We've made friends there. We'd love to just go visit them and then hunt while we're there. But I've been to several of the northern countries here in Canada. I've been to Ireland, england, scotland and then Africa. I've been to 12 or 14 of the African countries. Okay, yeah, so that's very unique.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I actually went to passport control, I don't know two or three years ago and the guy asked me how many times have you been to Africa? I was coming back from Africa, so it must have been three years ago. He says how many times have you been to Africa? I says I don't know. He says your passport says 36. I says, okay, 36. So you know, it's not that I've been to a lot of countries, but I've been to a lot of really good places. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And everybody I find a lot of good people and most everybody that I've met around, they've been hard workers, they've been dedicated to their job, they've been dedicated to their family, and that's what I always look for. Yeah, so that's my you know, and that's what you are. That's my forte.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what you are, that's my forte, yeah, so I want to get into the story that a lot of people know, but maybe not in the kind of detail that I read last night of what you wrote about. So you know, you've got all these mounts around here and it's amazing to be in here, but you said something when I walked in earlier. You um about going on these hunts and why you went on these hunts, especially in Africa. Talk about the need over there for what you were doing.
Speaker 4:Okay, um, I, my first trip to Africa was it was it was, I'm going to say it was a major hunting trip that I didn't really understand the African continent, I didn't understand the African people, but I wanted to go hunting there. So I did, and when I found out how much good we were doing hunting in Africa, well, first off, just to explain it, we would go to a ranch and the ranch would have a village or we'd go to the village, whatever, depending on where we are, but the villagers basically got paid for us to be there. Then they got to keep the meat and then they got other things and other benefits and they got money from government, from the permits, and so we finally realized that it's a sustainable use thing in Africa. What really stays, what really pays, stays. So if they got animals that people will buy or come hunt, they'll protect them and guard them and everything else. So if they've got animals that people will buy or come hunt, they'll protect them and guard them and everything else.
Speaker 4:So it's a really conservation thing over there, and I didn't understand all this when I first went, and so everything we hunt over there, it gets fully used, the meat gets fully eaten, what looks like animals. We bring back here. What we get, we get to hide in the horns and that's about all we get, and so everything else is foam and paste, plastic and glass. But I didn't realize how poor the African people really are and that a dollar for them is like a lot of dollars for us, really. And so when you go do something, even though it's expensive, and you know that half of that money is going to go to those people, it gets easy to do. It gets easy for me to do and therefore when I go over there, we always shoot a couple extra animals for the orphanage, we always shoot a couple animals for the schools or whatever. So we always do that and we pay for them and they eat the meat. It's a win-win situation. I get to hunt them and they get to keep them you know, that's great.
Speaker 4:And it's you know, some of the countries that don't allow you to hunt certain animals. Those animals don't exist in those countries, you know, because the people eat them, right, you know, and so people are that hungry they will catch and eat everything you can. Yeah, yeah, and that's.
Speaker 2:I had no idea, yeah, just like you did going over there. You didn't know, yeah, and so that's an amazing thing, I think, for people. You know where they see all these mountain and everything and they may have a certain thought in their mind, but to to recognize what you just said, that hey, the meat goes to those villages and to those people to feed them because they may not have a cow in the freezer or pig in the the freezer like we do.
Speaker 4:They're very lucky to have an onion or two in the garden. That's how poor they are. There's nobody here in America that's anywhere near as poor as they are, and you can go pick the poorest people you can find here. There's no one as poor as they are. I mean, we went to some villages where they had a little garden and they were saving the onions for a special time. They weren't going out and eating the onions, they were going out and saving them for a special occasion. So yeah, they're that poor and they have no way of the villagers. The local villagers have no way really of making money without going and working these game ranches and farms. I mean that's where they get their money. They don't, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. So Ethiopia right.
Speaker 4:They're in Ethiopia.
Speaker 2:So you're in Ethiopia, yeah, and you're going on a specific hunt.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm looking for an antelope. Okay, a lot like this antelope behind us. It's a specific antelope. Lives up in a mountain it's called a mountain yellow and we planned this hunt for a while. I fly from here to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Joburg and then Joburg or not, to that one. I went the other way around, sorry. I went to England and then down to Ethiopia. We get in Ethiopia another really poor country, ethiopia. We get in Ethiopia another really poor country and we go to the hotel where we're standing the first night and I get sitting down talking to the guides and everything else and the game scout, which is our game wardens, or whatever he comes in and he says we have a rogue lion down at the sugar cane plantation a couple, three hours from here, that you need to go shoot, and you know it's kind of. When somebody tells me I need to do something, I always ask the question why do I need?
Speaker 3:to do this.
Speaker 4:And it came across that we needed to go shoot this animal kind of before we could even hunt, because it's been such a problem for them. Because it's been such a problem for them, the Africans are absolutely terrified at lions and leopards and the cats. They just they sneak. The problem is that the cat sneaks in and steals them and that's why they tell the kids stay close, do this. And so from the time they're little, they're afraid of lions. Okay. So we says, okay, we'll, let us go down and look and see what it's like, let us go get our hunt done, and then you know we'll come back and take care of it. And he says, well, we'd like for you to go down and try to kill it first. So the next day we head down and we're equipped to hunt antelope, we're equipped to be mountain climbers.
Speaker 4:Okay, this line is on a sugarcane plantation. There's people everywhere, people always. It's a 24 hour operation. They're burning sugarcane, they're trucking sugarcane, they're doing everything on this plantation, but the kids and the cattle keep disappearing, and the sheep and the goats, okay, and they know it's a lion, they know it's a rogue lion, but we can't find it. We look hard, we look and look and can't find it, can't find any tracks. We can't find any tracks because the tracks have already been stomped on, run over, drag up. So I finally talked to the kids and they can show us where there's a kill. Yeah, it's a lion kill. Then they show us another spot where there's some leftover fur, hair and you know hide. We think it's a kill, but you can't tell for sure. So we start talking to people around.
Speaker 4:We spent a whole day just looking and looking and looking and can't find a sign of this line, nothing. And then one of the truckers finally stopped and asked what we're doing and we say we're looking for this line. He says you never see it in the daytime, we only see it at night. You know, we drive the trucks and we see it on the roads. So we decided to start hunting and we started hunting the night, hunted the first night, driving, driving, driving, driving, looking, looking, looking, looking, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 4:The second night we finally were driving it's I don't know, get a good start, but about 2.30 in the morning we finally see the lion running up a drainage ditch. We luckily got a shot at it. I rolled it over, thought it was dead. It did everything a lion's supposed to do. It rolls over, screams, cries out, does everything it does, but then it gets up and runs off. So the change gets on. He's hit well because we can find a trail of blood without much trouble.
Speaker 4:We trace him through this field and that field and the next field and the next field. He still has plenty of life in him. One of the fields we pull in, and it's sugarcane, and sugarcane on this plantation is in all different stages of growth. Some of the fields are just plowed dirt and some have the little shoots of sugarcane that are only just the start of it and some of it's really dense and thick and heavy and when you say dense and thick, I've seen sugar cane fields down in the dominican and costa rica, but talk about how dense and how I mean that stuff gets tall it gets tall, you know, and it's dense.
Speaker 4:It's a mature field, ready to harvest, is nothing but a green mat woven together within itself. The only way you can think about getting through the sugar cane is there's an area about two foot off the ground that gets no sunlight. That's how thick it is. It gets no sunlight so nothing grows there. So you can actually get underneath there and you can crawl in the fields if you want to.
Speaker 4:Anyway, after I shot this lion, we him, chased him, chased him and we get into, uh, the middle of the night, when the lights batteries are gone no lights, it's, you know. So we can. At one point, uh, cliff, we looked down the lane and there was a lion looking at us, looked down one of the sugar cane lanes and cliff got a shot off, a quick shot, shot him in the foot. We think, well, we know he shot him in the foot. At that time we didn't know where. He screams and runs off. We keep chasing and about 4 o'clock in the morning we decided we don't have any lights and he's going into this really thick patch of sugar cane, so we'll just let him go lay down and die. He's been running all night. He can't have much left. He's bleeding, he's still bleeding, so he can't have much left. So let him go in there and die. So we went in and tried to get a nap until daylight Come out.
Speaker 4:At daylight, crawled in this thick patch of cane, no-transcript, around and around and around and nobody sees anything. So we keep going and we come, I don't know. We come to a patch no bigger than this room of open space. Cliff's in front of me sliding along and I'm behind him sliding along, and all of a sudden Cliff rolls out of the way and this lion jumps right in my lap. I don't hardly see him coming, I just barely see him here and I fight him off. But he grabs my leg and I don't know if you've ever seen a cat kill a dog. I mean a dog kill a cat. They just take me, pick him up and they shake him. They shake him. Well, he's had me. He's got me shaking and shaking and shaking. He's trying to. He's trying to get me.
Speaker 4:I somehow get the composure to put my gun. It's across my lap. I just kind of slide it down my leg and push it in his mouth and that's the only way I know how to get him off of me and I get him to where Cliff can now get his composure because he's been rolling on the dirt. He can get his composure, gets his rifle out, goes to shoot him, the rifle jams I can tell you that rifle story after a while. But he goes to shoot him and the rifle jams, he reloads it and shoots him.
Speaker 4:Then two or three minutes, right at that point it's like I'm poisoned and Cliff's the problem. So the line drops me like I'm a hot potato and jumps Cliff and I roll over here to the air. I get another shot off at him. I mean he's standing this way at Cliff, I can still see it. He's standing on Cliff trying to get him and his body's just there. So I get a shot at him and two minutes later he's dead. But that's kind of the beginning of the story, not the end.
Speaker 4:He bit my arms, both of them, crushed my femur and put a big gash in the back of my leg. After we shot the line, cliff comes over behind me and says come on, let's back up and let him die. And I'm sitting this way looking but my foot's doing something like that to the left. I says we just better sit here, and so we just sit there and we were waiting and he dies in. So, but anyway, my feet, my femurs crushed, my there's no connection between my hip and my foot and he's bleeding because the line got him. He's bleeding. So what we do is bandage, you know, the best with. We bandage each other the best we can with what we have, so T-shirts and whatever else, and everything else.
Speaker 2:All of it's clean.
Speaker 4:All of it's clean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the middle of a sugar cane and I'm sure it's not 50 degrees. No, it's sweating.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's hot, and you've just been mauled by a lion, yeah, so anyway, the natives are so afraid of this lion we can't get him to come help us. We can call him, we can, you know, we got the guy's names and call him and he says I ain't coming in there. I mean, most of this is in a different language, so I'm not sure what's going on. But Cliff's yelling at him and they just won't come. And finally we convince him that the lion is dead and that we need help. And so they finally come in. Uh, at this time we've already bandaged ourselves up and ready to try to get out of there.
Speaker 4:Um, cliff is only, I'm gonna say, superficially hurt. I don't mean that that way, but he's got a big guy, a big bite in his leg, a big arm, but his bones are all still together and everything else. I'm kind of the the wimp of the family. So there's, this cane is so thick that there's really no way for me to get out without just sitting on my butt and pushing my way out. I mean, I can't stand up, can't do a hop, can't do anything. I just got to kind of sit on my butt and kind of drag myself out, and I remember a couple of times where it got so thick you couldn't do anything. So the guys would break over the sugar cane and I would crawl, push my way through that so I could keep on going. Finally getting away, got pushed out.
Speaker 4:Uh, get on, get out to where the irrigation ditches are, and they keep them kind of I won't say mowed, but kind of cleaned up so we can at least walk in them. And I do it, you're not walking. Well, I do a two-man walk. Okay, I do a two-man walk, one on the side, one on the side and me in the middle, uh, and we hop back to the uh, to the buggy, the truck, and I remember this this is kind of distinctly remember that I'm sitting down in front of the truck, there, the crew's all out getting things gathered up that we had scattered around, getting the line, getting this, getting everything getting ready to go. And I remember thinking this would be a good time for me just to give it up and lay out and be quiet. But I don't, because I know, if I do, my, my, my, my health is not in my hands at that point. Yeah, you know, and ethiopia is noted for having the absolute worst medical field in the world.
Speaker 4:That's comforting yeah, that's kind of so, but anyway, I'm not thinking about that at that time. We go to get in the truck, get all loaded up, we go to the infirmary. You know, sugar Can Plains got a good infirmary. Well, it's an infirmary for trucks and tractors. It's not an infirmary for people. They do have a few Band-Aids and a few old rags, so we get bundled up and do all that, and the one thing they do, though, they get us an ambulance to the nearest hospital, which is two and a half hours away. Okay, that's their only good hospital. So, get on this flatbed. That's all it is is a flatbed, both of us on the back end of it. They're driving down these really nice, comfortable roads.
Speaker 4:Dirt roads, rocks bumps, ruts, ditches, gravelss, you know everything else bouncing around. But we finally get to the hospital. Um, they get us in there and really nice young doctor. He looks us over. He says, uh, you guys are in bad shape. And I said, yeah, I think we are. What kind of pain are you?
Speaker 4:in. I'm. I'm actually Actually I'm in a pain that I can handle, because what's really saved my life back in the part between getting out of the sugar cane and getting to the infirmary was that my leg swelled up like a balloon and it stents off all of the bleeding. I mean it's dripping but it's not bleeding, but it's as big as my body. Or off all of the bleeding. I mean it's dripping but it's not bleeding, but it's, it's as big as a big as my body or bigger Okay. Okay, because of the trauma and that kind of what kept me from bleeding out and everything else, it just stopped bleeding.
Speaker 4:And anyway, we get to this infirmary and there's nothing there. So they get us on a flatbed truck, we drive to the hospital, they admit us, us, the doctor, I, somehow, on the bouncy road, I realized I had this evacuation insurance. I paid for this evacuation insurance that's supposed to help me in these situations. So I tell the doctor that when we get in he's looking over, trying to, trying to trying to change advantages, which isn't really doing any good, but he's trying to do something. And I, I, he says, I said him, you know, just call this number and see what they say, and I finally convinced him to call and I'm half dreary now because the fever has now already taken over, and so he's talking and I can almost hear him say I think he's got a broken leg. Well, I mean, it's kind of obvious.
Speaker 4:My first point, you know, and the guy I could, hear the guy on the other line says what do you mean? You think he's got a broken leg? He says well, we don't have an x-ray machine. And they said okay. They immediately says we're coming to get him, and so they scrambled a jet, but about? They scrambled a jet from France, I think Paris. By the time they got there it's another four hours or five hours. Then he put us on the plane a jet fly us to South Africa, which is another six hours. So it's actually I'm getting to South Africa, the hospital there, and it's 36 hours.
Speaker 3:Since the Inmala.
Speaker 4:So it's 36 hours later and the fever's. You know I'm 100% with cat fever and all kinds of fevers, but they took very good care of me at the hospital. The hospital had done the first heart transplant in the world. So it's a good hospital. There's nothing wrong with it. The only thing is they don't speak any English. But other than that everything else is good. So they take me into theater, which is their emergency room. They clean me into into theater, which is their emergency room. They clean me out and see what they can do. Swelling's too big to do any repair work or anything like that, and the actually the damage is too big to do the repair work anyway for them at this stage. So they they install an extra fixator which is just a eiffel tower on your leg. Bolt me here together, bolt me down there together. Everything's fine. You know legs. Good now, you won't, you're not going to squish it, you're not going to bruise an artery or something like that. So okay then with the infection, I laid in the hospital there nine days with the drain cleaning it out, antibiotics, another drain cleaning it out, antibiotics. It took nine days to get it down.
Speaker 4:In the meantime, diane uh, I had, I had stolen a phone, somehow gotten a phone and, uh, I called home and, you know, called diane. I was going to tell her my situation and of course, the only day she's not here is the day that I call. So I leave a message in my feverish state that Cliff and I have been mauled by a lion, we're in South Africa, and I don't say anything else because they don't know much else. Okay, so, anyway, so she gets, she gets, she comes in and gets that call and you know, you know how that works. But she immediately gets on the phone, starts looking for us.
Speaker 4:She calls our friends in South Africa. They do a very wonderful job of trying to find me, which is a difficult task, and it's a hopeful day and a half of her worrying about us. Yeah, I'm just seeing where we are. Even after Nadine found us, it was almost impossible. They wouldn't give any information to Nadine because she wasn't family. And then Diane's calling them and she's trying to get in and they don't talk English and there's no phone in the room. There's no phone for me to get to, and so it's a lack of communication between the nurses and me and her, and that went on for about a day and a half.
Speaker 4:So she's sitting here a day and a half. And she asked the nurse can you just tell me his injuries? And the nurse says one leg, one arm. And that's the injuries one leg and one arm. Now she knows I've been attacked by a lion.
Speaker 2:Do I have one leg or?
Speaker 4:do I have one arm or what is going on and I, you know, it's kind of, when you sit back and look at it, it's kind of comical the way it all went down, but it was not a bit funny at the time. No, yes, so, uh, anyway. So then she called the next day and finally got the head nurse and they finally, after she begged, pestered him so many times, they finally got a phone in the room somehow. They brought in a cell phone or night and then I finally got to talk to her. But in the meantime my friends from south africa had come up and had taken pictures and sent them home and I was all covered up with a sheet and smiling and being a nice guy with a picture, and she texted Johan back, take off the sheet.
Speaker 2:She wanted to see how bad it was.
Speaker 4:And so she was here like I don't know, maybe a week, with an airline ticket to go. Whenever I said go and I told her, you know, we decided it was better for her to stay here because that's the way she could get me home From there. She couldn't get me home. So anyway, as it worked out, nine days later I get on, I get my fever breaks enough that they think I can travel the 18 hours it takes to get here. Okay, and so with the jet they would have flown me, they would have med-jetted me from here to there and to there, to there and there, but the fuel and the capacity of the jet was small, they would have had to make six stops on the way and it would have taken a day and a half I don't know two days to get here. So they put me on a, they booked me on a first class ticket from on. South African Air flew me from joe berg to dallas date washington dc.
Speaker 2:Now I'll stop you non-stop. Yeah, I want, I want to stop you, though. What was it like getting on the plane?
Speaker 4:well, um, first off. Uh, getting on the plane was a challenge at best. We had the wrong equipment to get on the plane we had. We had a fixed hard cot, roller wheels and everything else, and they couldn't even get me on the plane. They tried to get me through the first-class door and it wouldn't go. Then they tried to get me through the baggage claim it wouldn't go. They finally run me through where they pushed the food through, because it's connected to the body of the plane, where they could put me down in the bottom where the luggage goes.
Speaker 4:But then they had no way of getting me up. So they run me in there and the cot they had could not make turns around the aisles. Well, you know, we have a hard time walking around the aisles, so it's not obvious. So they decided that they could put me on one of these stretchers the best way to say it. They couldn't figure out how to get me off the cot and onto the stretcher without all that, and they didn't want to. No pressure on my leg, of course, and so I'm hopping around doing everything. They put me up on the seat of one of the seats, put me up on the armrest and I sat there and balanced myself until they take the wheel cart out and bring the body cart in, and so I'm sitting there balancing, and then they do such a nice job of getting me over there. They don't know how to handle me, but one of the stewards that's there to help grabs my exterior fixator and uses that as a handle to put me on.
Speaker 2:Well, that worked, but it didn't feel so well, and that's what's holding your leg together.
Speaker 4:That's what's holding my leg together. Yeah, so that's what's holding your leg together. That's what's holding my leg together. Yeah, so that's, but it was. They did get me in a nice seat. I was at a challenge, though, with the exterior fixator and my hips. If I'd have been a half inch bigger, I would not have been able to get on that seat. Half inch, yeah, just half inch. I'm stuck on both sides, you know, I just there's. I mean, I can't turn over, I can't do anything. I'm stuck on both sides. So if it had been, the seat's been a half inch or an inch narrower, I don't know what they'd have done with me. They'd have done something else because I wouldn't have been able to get in the seat, and you got to ride how many?
Speaker 4:hours 18. Shoot, what's your pain like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, manageable, it's all perspective, right, it is all perspective.
Speaker 4:Pain is a thing that you can learn to live with, or learn to not be able to live with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you make it back to the States.
Speaker 4:I make it back to the States. We land in Washington Dallas Airport. A medjet picks me up there and flies me to Dayton. Now when I get on that medjet, the nurses have all the medicine I need. So at that point they calm me down.
Speaker 2:Life gets a little better.
Speaker 4:Life gets like I don't care. And then they bring me into Miami Valley here in Dayton and Diane was an EMT. She is an EMT, she was working at that point so she knew the back way to get in and they knew that she was coming. So she intercepts them before they get me into the emergency room and I told the nurses I says when you see her you better just get out of the way because she's going to run right over you so anyway.
Speaker 4:So we reunite and things are all good. So they get me in a room. I think I spent 15 days in Miami Valley. First five or six, I go in and they cut me, they opened me up and we'll flush it out, install antibiotic beads, antibiotics, sew it back up. And the doctor told Diane that I can't explain it. It's just like it's. It's like glue or goo, it's just, it's just all pussy and everything else, and it's just so that went on and everything else, and it's just so that went on. I think that was three times they did. They did a flush and and reseal and then on the fourth time they, uh, they decided they could start reconstruction, but it's more important to get me in the situation where I could be comfortable and move around everything else. So, yeah, uh, 15 days, I don't know how many operations six or seven and finally I could get out of the hospital in a wheelchair, then on the crutches. Then we had a hospital bed put in this room so the dying could take care of me.
Speaker 4:I was on an antibiotic drip, antibiotic tablets and antibiotic cream for a long time when they found out they were treating me for the wrong thing. Oh no, well, at that time I was one of the only people that had been infected by a bacteria that was found only in goats, and I had it. Really, yeah, we figured the lion had eaten an infected goat, given me the bacteria and they were treating me for other things. And so then we all one day they just said, yep, stop everything, we're gonna start over with something else. So they come in with a new batch of antibiotics, but anyway, it's a long time.
Speaker 4:It was about 18 months Total. Well, yeah, total when I was back to where I could just maybe walk. I still had time after that to get strength and get bending. One thing that did happen, and it probably would happen to anybody they had taken my leg like this and left it like that for too long and it stayed like that. It wouldn't bend. So after the reconstruction and healing of the bone, which didn't heal very well because of all the antibiotics, which we found out later that the antibiotics were keeping the bone from healing. So after that then I was stiff-legged, so I had to work all that out.
Speaker 2:Physical therapy and all that Physical therapy and farm therapy. So you glossed over something a little bit. When the mauling happened you talked about, cliff had a chance to take the shot right and his gun jammed. Yeah. So talk about that, because that's kind of significant right.
Speaker 4:It is kind of significant. It goes back to the beginning of the story. We were out there hunting antelope. So Cliff wouldn't even be carrying a gun at that time. It's not a non-dangerous animal, I'm the guy that's got the gun. So, okay, it's not a non-dangerous animal, I'm the guy that's got the gun.
Speaker 4:So when we were told we had to kill this lion, cliff said do you have a gun that I can use, because we're not going in there with one gun. That's not going to happen. So there was a colonel there of some sort Actually I don't know his title, but he was called Colonel. He had an old it must have been a .458, be my guess, okay, an old Army gun. And you know it worked when he shot it, but when it was needed it jammed. Now, cliff being a gunman, he quickly unjammed it and used it. But I guess what I'm trying to say is we were in the spot. We were in because we really didn't have the right equipment. You know we didn't start right. So that's one of the things that somebody says what would you change? I'd say if I knew I was going to hunt lions, I'd go hunt lions, but you were there to hunt antelope.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were thinking about a 300-yard shot with a nice small rifle that shoots flat and everything else. Now we're face-to-face with a lion. Yeah, it wants to eat you. It's a different show.
Speaker 2:So at the end of the day, I mean, we know, because we're sitting here and you're sitting here and the lion's over there, yeah, so you won.
Speaker 4:You won at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:And you helped that village right Right, that's kind of the bigger story, I guess.
Speaker 4:The bigger story is that we controlled a man-eating lion. We disposed of it properly. I mean, I know some people that might shoot it and just let it go because leave it in there, It'll stay in there until it comes out. But that's not the way, you know, life goes in my mind. You know you dispatch things properly and do everything right. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Earlier you talked about what was the survival rate?
Speaker 4:Oh it's at the time, the statistics was that if you'd been mauled by a lion, there was only a 13% survival rate. So I'm one of the lucky ones.
Speaker 2:I guess I'm one of the ones that gets to put a one in there, or a three, I'm not sure, right, what's more amazing is that you know, not only being mauled, but just surviving the trek from those sugar cane fields to the different hospitals. And what if you wouldn't have had insurance, you know, I mean, who knows where the story would be what if you wouldn't have had insurance.
Speaker 4:I mean, who knows where the story would be? You bring it up, but when I got into Joburg they said we need $10,000 down payment. I says no, you take credit cards. And the girl says well, if you got one, that's good. And I gave her my American Express. She says well, that'll work.
Speaker 2:He said I guess that's what you were going to throw me on the street. I mean, all these things line up. You know, it's amazing. It's amazing. God was definitely watching over you, yeah, every day of the way.
Speaker 4:I was about a quarter inch away from my feet. I forget the name of the blood vessel in the leg, but if it had been punctured it's a six-minute bleed. And it was just that far away. Blood vessel in the leg, but if it had been punctured it's a six-minute bleed, you know. And it was just that far away from the damage. My main nerve in my leg was just inches away from being damaged. So all of those things were God's blessing.
Speaker 3:All by a lion Fever that only goats have, that the doctors couldn't figure out.
Speaker 2:And even when you get back into the States and they talk about you know how. You know all the pus and everything in your leg, I mean just yeah, it's amazing. I mean, you're a miracle.
Speaker 4:And then with with the bone not healing over a period of time, it was like in that must happen. In February, September, October, I had to go in and get a bone graft because the bones weren't talking to each other. So that was another operation where they went in and actually put a bowtie from the top of my knee to the to the femur that was crushed and so they would start talking together and come back together. That's part of the reason it was an 18-month recovery, because they bones wouldn't talk and wouldn't feel each other and then on top all that you got.
Speaker 2:You know you got Diane back here worrying sick. Your kids, I'm sure, are all worried sick. You know um, you got a business still yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So I mean how's?
Speaker 3:that no, I mean, there's all these other things and you're fighting for your life.
Speaker 2:Good thing, I had a good partner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good partner. Good, good employees and yeah, um, because if it was an 18 month total, I mean that's tough.
Speaker 4:I did get back into the office. Oh, maybe again I'm guessing, maybe four months, three months after I could put weight on my foot, a little weight anyway, and I had to keep my foot up. So I'd get in my drafting table and then I had a stool that I could put my foot up on like this, and I could still work. So I was back. That was kind of a saving grace for me. Um, diane and I argued about it and she was right, of course, but it was it was it was one of those things that it, it, you know.
Speaker 4:For a while there I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to save my leg and a lot of things like that and a lot that goal goes through your head and it gets you up and gets you down and you know. And then, uh, diane's one time I was fussing, I guess and she says you know, it's your leg, it ain't your head in your hands. Yeah, you know, you got that talent, just don't worry about it. So, I don't know, a month after that she had me.
Speaker 4:We, I was sitting at my drafting desk at work with my foot propped up on a stool doing my job and uh, she would take me in, get me up the steps and get me down the steps and then she'd take the kids, the grandkids, and go play for someplace for an hour, two hours or three hours and whatever I felt or whatever she thought I could do, yeah, and then she'd come pick me up. So that was a great uh, that was a great thing that she did for me. That uh got me back into the swing of real things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing well then, I realized you.
Speaker 4:Then I realized you know I've got to recover, but if I don't, I've still got this. I mean, I'm still not. It's not like I, you know, it's not like the amputee we talked about earlier, where you don't have any hands at all. Right, it's just. You know, I was fortunate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing, amazing story. So, as we go on this plane, I appreciate you sharing all that and all your wisdom. Do you have any closing thoughts? Is there a Bible verse, a quote that you lean? On when you're in the hospital just trying to figure out what was going on and fighting through that pain that would resonate in your mind or that you live by, that you could share with our listeners.
Speaker 4:I don't know if I have a quote or a thought, but I did depend on God a lot and I depend on God a lot. I think one of the things that I think about a lot is that everything we have here was given to us. It was given to us and if he wants to take it, he can take it whenever he wants to, and I leaned on that as saying that he allowed me to keep the things that I needed so I guess maybe if I had a motto.
Speaker 4:I said God, let me keep what he thought I needed. And since then he's blessed me more than that, because I've probably gotten closer to him because of it, I've probably grown in to him. Because of it, I've probably grown in my faith and I've been able to give it back to other people, and I think that's one of the things as a result of the whole thing going from a real tragedy to a real blessing.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, that's amazing and it's just an amazing story of resilience and I think anybody out there, all these stories that we try to share on this podcast, you know people are going through a fire or have been through all these different things, you know.
Speaker 4:Jason COVID getting electrocuted losing his arms.
Speaker 2:Mark Metzger, getting mauled by a lion, should have died right. But look at you and you're thankful for all that stuff, and you're grateful and you recognize that life is good and that you know we're not guaranteed tomorrow. And so, mark, I can't thank you enough. I appreciate the hospitality, letting us come in your home and move some things around so we can get this set up and maybe we'll be able to get a picture of the lion that we can put into the podcast where people can see it. That's a pretty cool thing. So we appreciate your time. Ben, you got anything to add?
Speaker 3:No, but it's mind-blowing you know I did okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you did amazing, you did amazing.
Speaker 3:When Dan originally texted he said you know it's going to be an experience coming here and I mean it's amazing and the story I mean I just can't imagine. I imagine you cling to the faith, obviously. You know you always hear. I remember growing up my mom always saying, like about ethiopia, about how poor it was, I can't imagine needing medical, you know help and everything there. And then the day that you're sitting there and I mean you had to have doubt okay, and the way that you said you're fortunate, like you're just extremely blessed, you know, and I imagine that grew your faith Huge. It does.
Speaker 4:It's huge. Yeah, have you been back? I have not been back to Ethiopia, but I've been back. I've been hunting several times since then. I actually killed a lion, I don't know, two years ago. Okay, so I've been back in the saddle. Yeah, yeah, well, good.
Speaker 2:All right, well, appreciate your ears and we appreciate Mark, and go out and be tempered.
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